Tag: writing

Like every New Years Eve, I spent last night writing down my goals for the new year. My cousin, BFF, bucket list buddy (yes, they are all the same person) and I share them and help keep each other stay accountable.

As I was working through my list, I realized my goals were all something, God willing, somewhat achievable, but my mind keeps seeing a number and I thought, what the hell. I want to write 1,000,000 words in 2016.

Now, I know that seems crazy, but when I broke it down, it seemed a bit more attainable.

83,333.33 words per month

20,833.33 words per week

2,732.24 words per day.

I average 1,000 words an hour when I’m working on my WIP. Even if I’m writing slow, let’s say it takes me 3 hours a day to reach that goal. With 24 hours in a day, that’s not too much.

But, what will I write?

There the 11 projects I have slated to write this year.

7 full lengths at 70,000 words each

3 novellas at 25,000 words each

1 short novella at 10,000 words each

If my math is correct, that 575,000 words. I’m over half way there.

Freelance projects of 3,000 words per month are on the schedule.

That’s another 36,000 words.

I want to dedicate one blog post a week for two different blogs. Each post 300 words. That adds up to another 31,200 words.

If I add in emails, outlines, project plans, and yes, even grocery lists, or anywhere I can average 300 words per day, that would get me to 109,800 words (The leap year helps.)

I’m at 752,000 words.

I just need to find another 248,000 words.

It may be more of an aspiration, than a goal, but the point is to keep writing in 2016, so if I am working towards that, any number I hit by the end of the year, I’ll be happy with.

AND, I am already off to a good start, 350 words down, only 999,648 more words to go.

It’s already December 2014. I can’t believe it. This year flew by. I’ve been a published author for six months and it has been a world wind and I don’t see it slowing down. I have one month to finish some projects, and plan for more, but I’m super excited about 2015.

Events

December 8th, 2014 – Hope for Him (Hope Series Book #2) Release Day Blitz. If you want to help me promote my release, please sign up here.

Come hang out with us and celebrate 8 moving stories of love and lust to melt away the winter blues.

December Goals

Complete Publication schedule for 2015.Complete marketing/publishing budget for 2015.7,129 words on Hope for Us11,432 words on A New Season

Sydney Quotes the Movies

I wasn’t sure if it was because of Chris Nolan or Matthew McConaughey or because it was a movie about outer space, but I thought it was all around brilliant. Plus, it had a lot of great quotes and it made me think. I love that in a movie.

“We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”

“Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.”

“Murphy’s law doesn’t mean that something bad will happen. It means that whatever can happen, will happen.”

“Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends time and space.”

“I have a cue light I can use to show you when I’m joking, if you like.”

Movie watching List for December:

The Hobbit – Third and final. What am I going to do next year with no Hobbits? American Sniper – True story and Bradley Copper. Exodus – It’s Ridley Scott and epic movie making. The sea parting scene is reason enough to go see it.

What are your big plans for 2015? Have you seen Interstellar? What do you want for Christmas?

Hope for Her (Hope Series Book #1) was released on October 1st and it had a great release day, and 5 days later, it is still in the top 100 in African American Romance. I also received some great feed back from readers. Here are a couple of my favorites:

“Speechless, Mouth open, shaking my head, laughing, crying, smiling.”

“This book touched my heart, made it ached, and ripped it right out.”

One reader even declared Hope for Her, her favorite book this year. Considering it’s October, I thought that was pretty cool. haha.

October 6, 2014 (Tonight) from 4:00 – 8:00 pm CST, I will be taking over at the United Indie Book Blog on Facebook. Lots of great giveaways and I will share some exclusive excerpts from Hope for Him (Hope Series Book #2). Come and join me.

I can’t believe it’s already October. Where has this year gone? Before I get into my insecurities for this month, I wanted to give a shout out and congrats to our fearless IWSG leader, Alex Cavanaugh. If you haven’t read his Cassa series cumulating with CassaStorm, which was released last month, you are missing out.

#IWSG – The ups and downs are inevitable in this journey. It is like life I guess, some days the words are flowing, the goals are being met, your on top of things. Other times, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the weight of it all.

September was a particularly unstable month for me. Here are some of the highlights:

I started the month on a four day solo writing retreat to The Hill Country near Lake Travis (North of Austin, Tx). – UP

The hotel I stayed at was a hole. – DOWN

I found an amazing spot to gets some work done and finished edits on my WIP. – UP

I sent my WIP out to some amazing people who agreed to beta read it for me. – UP

I started my own read through and found so many grammar issues, I recalled it from all the beta’s. – DOWN

I thought I had found a new critique group with two ladies who write in my genre. – UP and super excited to have some feedback from fans and writers of NA.

After emailing them my WIP, they decided I wasn’t right for their group after all. – WAY DOWN and a little defeated.

I submitted my query letter to Unicorn Bell Query Workshop and received the most amazing feedback and suggestions and from that I created a query letter that I am so proud of. – WAY UP and renewed my faith in this amazing writing community.

I pitched my story during #PitMad and got two partials and a full request, one from my dream agent. – UP

I sent a query letter to another dream agent and got a partial request based on just the query letter. – WAY UP

I am still editing my WIP because every time I read through it I find something that needs to be improved. – UP & DOWN